Serbia’s Population Shrinks

By

Goran Mijuk

Oct 17, 2011 3:08 pm CET

Since the project to carve a ‘Greater Serbia’ out of the remains of Yugoslavia has failed, this southeastern European country has seen its territory shrink dramatically. Now its citizens are leaving in throngs, too.

Preliminary results of the latest census by the country’s statistics office have shown that, due to the country’s low birth rate and continued emigration, its population may have dropped by about 200,00 to 300,000 in the last ten years to some 7.4 million people. Some 60,000 people have left the country, according to preliminary estimates.

Serbia’s shrinking, which started to gain momentum at the turn of the century after four lost wars, has long been ridiculed in the streets.

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